Advertising Area

Advertising Area

Egypt police kill two Sudanese near Israel border

AL-ARISH: Egyptian border police on Tuesday shot dead two Sudanese migrants as they tried to cross the border illegally into Israel, a security official told AFP. Police were forced to open fire after the African migrants refused to stop despite warnings, the official said. The two, who were not identified, were shot south of the …

AL-ARISH: Egyptian border police on Tuesday shot dead two Sudanese migrants as they tried to cross the border illegally into Israel, a security official told AFP.

Police were forced to open fire after the African migrants refused to stop despite warnings, the official said.

The two, who were not identified, were shot south of the border town of Rafah, the official said, adding that a third Sudanese man had been arrested.

Imad Kharboush, head of the Northern Sinai ambulance department, told AP that the shooting took place early Tuesday as a group of Sudanese tried to get over barbed wire south of the border crossing of Rafah.

The official says a third Sudanese, Yahia Abu Bakr, was slightly wounded in the shooting.

Kharboush says the two killed had no documents on them but that the wounded man identified them as Sudanese who were his friends.

The deaths bring to 22 the number of migrants killed by Egyptian police at the border since the beginning of the year. Hundreds have been arrested making the crossing.

The porous 250-kilometer Egypt-Israel border has become a major transit route for migrants, asylum-seekers and drug smugglers.

In August, Amnesty International urged the Egyptian government to launch an investigation into the shooting dead by police of people crossing the border illegally. -Agencies